The Vagus Nerve: The FAST Way to Calm

Unlock the secret to a calm and connected life by harnessing the transformative power of your vagus nerve. Imagine starting your day with a sense of peace rather than stress; this episode promises to teach you a simple yet powerful exercise that can do just that in mere minutes. Join Emily, your dedicated guide, as she reveals how this incredible nerve—the longest cranial nerve in the body—can influence everything from your heart rate to your ability to think clearly. Discover how you can support your body's natural functions and prevent stress from dominating your life.

Emily, a massage therapist who witnesses the impact of stress daily, shares her insights on why the vagus nerve is the quickest path to relaxation. While not a counselor, she offers an effective technique to help you manage stress and prevent those fight-or-flight responses from becoming chronic. With actionable tips and empowering stories, she'll walk you through mastering this essential tool, ensuring that tense moments don’t take control. Learn how to reset your vagus nerve in as little as 30 seconds, setting a positive tone for your entire day and embracing a more balanced, stress-free existence.

Transcript

Emily : 0:04

Welcome to It Starts at V, the podcast where holistic health meets modern living. I'm Emily, your guide to unlocking the power of the vagus nerve, which is your body's ultimate key to calm, connection and overall well-being. Together, we'll explore simple ways to nourish your mind and body with natural remedies, actionable tips and empowering stories. Whether you're here to reduce stress, restore balance or take charge of your health, you're in the right place, because wellness doesn't just happen. It starts at Vegas. Let's dive in

Emily : 0:41

Picture this.

Emily : 0:43

It's morning, you're waking up you actually didn't sleep that great, but not too bad. It was a decent night and then you hear the thoughts, all of your thoughts, going through your head, your to-do list, what you have to get done. Who do you need to wake up right now? Meanwhile, you start hearing that somebody is already up, but you hear something drop on the floor and you haven't even been awake yet for 10 minutes and you can already feel that tension rising and you can feel everything, like your hands are getting tighter and you can feel your shoulders going up and you're breathing less, and it's all happening before you're even out of bed. Now, that happens, it just does. That's life, but there's things that we can do so that that doesn't set the tone for the rest of the day. And you guessed it, it's that vagus nerve.

Emily : 1:44

The vagus nerve is the fastest way that I have found on how to relax the body and calm the mind at the same time. It is the coolest nerve, it is the longest cranial nerve connecting your brain to your body. And the vagus nerve it's called the wanderer, and that does not mean all who wander are lost, it just means that it goes all over the body. It helps with so many things. It helps with your heart rate, your breathing, your esophagus, your rest and digest organs, so anything in the GI tract. It helps with just how clear you can think. There's so many benefits to the vagus nerve and when you click onto the link that I'll put in my show notes on how you can reset your vagus nerve, it can be less than 60 seconds.

Emily : 2:48

It's so fast, so easy and it helps the day go so much smoother because you're not forcing, you're not trying to convince yourself that the day is going better, you just hack into that nervous system. Your nerves say okay, we're fine, all is well, and you do better because your brain and your body, their main focus, isn't to see if you're doing things well or correctly or how many things you can get done at one time. Its sole priority is survival and that is when you start getting stressed and panicky. That is when it stops your rest and digest. It says, hey, we don't need to digest food. We have to put priority on making sure this person's safe, and that's what it does. And when we get stuck in that fight or flight response of our nervous system, we can't calm down as easy.

Emily : 3:57

And that is why learning the vagus nerve reset that basic exercise. It will help you hack into your nervous system so that you can calm down. And again it takes, and it's so fast. I've seen it done in as little as 30 seconds and it can be up to two minutes. So you do have to be a little patient sometimes. But two minutes to set the rest of your day's tone and how your body feels, that's nothing. That's such a small amount of the day that makes the rest of the day so much better. That is why I love the vagus nerve.

Emily : 4:38

I love teaching people about the vagus nerve, because everybody should know how to support their body so that it doesn't have to have those freak out moments. You don't have to feel stressed. You'll get stressed and you'll get, you know, put in situations that are stressful. But it doesn't have to carry on, it doesn't have to linger, it doesn't have to be chronic and unless we know the tools, we won't be able to do it. And so I've seen this every day in my practice, every day when people come in and they're stressed out.

Emily : 5:15

Now take it, I'm a massage therapist. I am not a counselor or a therapist. I am not able to, you know, talk them through their daily life challenges. They can talk to me but we don't talk it through and like problem solve it. But when I can relax their muscles, that tension eases off. And then that eases off for the brain and it says, okay, muscles aren't tight anymore, we can relax and calm down. And it's very often that my clients' stomachs start gurgling, and there's a lot of them. They're embarrassed because they're like, oh, I'm not hungry, and it's like I take that as a biggest compliment because I know when their stomach starts making noises it's set in that rest and digest mode. So when they walk in they're all stressed out and during session they are calming down.

Emily : 6:17

But not everybody can come and see me every single day or once a week or sometimes once a month. There's lots of variables in there. But everybody can learn how to do the vagus nerve reset. And again, it costs nothing. It's free to you. I am not going to gatekeep that information. I want everybody to know. So just have to put your email link in. I'll send it right to your email. Sometimes just give it a few minutes, but it'll be right in there and you can learn step by step. Really really simple. But I see it so many times where I'm.

Emily : 6:58

People come in, they're stressed, they're anxious, their body's holding on to it and once I do a few resets for the vagus nerve and to help calm their muscles down from that tension, once that's done, everything just like, you can feel it lifting off of them. It's such a fun experience because you can just feel their mood shift. It's really nice because you know it's for the positive of waking up or coming home, or it's just been a long day Anytime where you feel yourself holding onto your breath and you realize a tension in your shoulders are making your shoulders go up to your ears or your jaws really tight and it just won't calm down. That's a perfect time for you to take a step back. Do the vagus nerve reset, that basic exercise and give your body the tools to settle your nerves down by yourself. You can do this daily. You can do it just as needed. It's just a tool that you can use whenever you need it. That's the simplicity of it.

Emily : 8:26

But, like I said, relaxing that vagus nerve is the fastest way I have seen people calm down. I have used it. I've used it on my clients. I've taught them how to do it. It is an amazing body hack.

Emily : 8:45

Like I said, everybody should know. So I really am thankful that you're here to learn about it, to learn how to do it, and I'd really love it if you would share with it share to a friend who you know is stressed out, because everybody should know. This is my mission to show people that you do not have to get stuck in that anxiety tension loop, because they do feed one another. When you're tense, you get anxious. When you're anxious, you get tense. It's just that cycle and this is an easy way how to break that for the better. Natural, free, easy. It's like a win-win for everything. So, like I said, if you don't have it already, go get that link so I can email it to you so you can watch the video. Share it with a friend, because that's being a nice friend. You don't want them to be anxious either. That's being a nice friend. You don't want them to be anxious either.

Emily : 9:48

And if you like all this information, this is what the podcast is all about. It's all about taking care of our vagus nerve, supporting it in all the right ways so we can be calm and not get burnt out of just living our daily life. And I will see you next week on Tuesday. Thanks for listening to it Starts at Vagus. If you enjoyed this episode, subscribe so you don't miss what's coming next. And if you're ready to take the next step toward calm, grab my free Vagus Nerve Reset video in the show notes. It's a quick and easy way to start feeling better today and until next time, remember wellness starts at Vagus.